The issue with the furminator is that it strips and cuts the top coat, along with irritating the skin, ask any show dog owner, they wont touch the thing. They do alot of damage in particular to long haired oily haired breeds, like golden retrievers, tibetan mastiffs, shelties, collies, and even some short haired dogs like greater swiss mountain dogs. A really up and coming, but popular among show dog owners is the 18 blade Oster Undercoat rake, this thing gives the apearance of a hand stripped finish, without damaging top coat and it works BETTER than the furminator at reducing shedding, you can use effectively with any breed daily.

I have the original of the Oster, Mars Coat King. Only the 14 tine one works for me, have tried several MCK tine counts and the cheap ones at the big box pet stores. MCK has a nice page showing before and after, Max definitely could be on that page, it really helps me deal with his fuzz. He looks most like the retriever mix I think.
http://www.groomersmall.com/ck_results.htm

It can cut coat but I used a flea comb and plucking undercoat religiously for a couple years, went back to MCK and cannot see any difference in Max's coat. Some groomers think they are fine, the original groomer who loved it for the faux stripping on terriers found dogs came back with really odd looking coats. Seems to me they would just need another session with a MCK type tool, not sure she tried that. It is carding anyway, not stripping. Pulls out undercoat. Pulling top coat is stripping.

I used the Furminator on Sassy' dense short double coat and MCK on Max's long/feathered thinner double coat. Wouldn't be without either but you do have to be careful.